^o Lucas, Ferns Grown in the Open. [ 



Vol. XXXVI. 



stones and protected by a bark roof over its nook. It grows 

 in deep, extremely sandy, loose soil under or at the foot of 

 big rocks in our sandstone gullies, where it does not seem to get 

 much nutriment, but is kept moist by its situation. It is not 

 easy to devise means to provide for it sufficient moisture and 

 shade away from the seepage of the gully sides. One group 

 of plants has survived, but the other has disappeared. It can 

 be grown well in a glass frame. L. trichomanoides, growing in 

 good soil in deep gullies, also seems to resent the excess of 

 light of the lowlands. We are here about 400 feet above sea 

 level, but I obtained it growing wild in the Kurrajong at 

 2,000 feet. Even L. linearis, common in swampy heaths, is 

 a little diffi-cult. It has long, thin rhizomes, which must be 

 very carefully transferred. The plants, however, after foxing 

 in the summer, are now coming on well. 



The Adiantums have done splendidly. A . cethiopicum always 

 withers off the old fronds in the summer, but young ones replace 

 them, and the plants now make a bright green girdle round 

 the throne of the Birds' Nest. A . formosimt never turned a hair, 

 but has grown so fast and so big as to threaten its neighbours ; 

 it runs rapidly. A. affine is much more tricky; has just held 

 its own, without much more to boast of. A. hispidukim is 

 more delicate, but, planted in sheltered nooks, is bright and 

 green, as is also its ally, A. neo-caledonicum, obtained in the 

 markets. It is a more dwarf and bushy fern, and does not 

 need so much shelter. Both large-segmented forms of A. 

 capillus -veneris and small-segmented forms of other imported 

 species surprised me by flourishing much better in the open 

 than they had done in the bush-house. They all seem to revel 

 in the freedom allowed to their rhizomes. 



Doodia aspera and D. caudata, both common in this district, 

 just rioted in the good Water supply. They go off in the bush 

 in a drought, but with plenty of water defy heat or wind. 

 Growing with these two we sometimes find a form which seems 

 to be identical with the D. connexa of Kunze. It resembles 

 D. aspera in the size and shape of the frond and pinnae, but 

 most of these are detached, as in D. caudata, and the sori are 

 more like those of D. caudata. As the two species grow in 

 company with this form, it may be a hybrid between them. 

 It is as hardy as they. Under the shelter of the big Crow's Nest 

 in the central bed grows a plant of D. AtkinsonicB, which is 

 usually considered a variety of D. caudata. The fronds are 

 exceedingly variable, taking all shapes in the lower part, but 

 nearly all end in tails, which may reach a foot or more in 

 length. It is a descendant — or rather derivative — of a plant 

 gathered in the Kurrajong, on the spot where Miss Atkinson 

 noted it. It is so rare that, if a variety, it must have been a 



